Why Tiana’s Bayou Adventure May Have Some Hiccups

One day soon, Magic Kindgom will announce the opening date of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

Today, I’m going to look into Madame Leota’s crystal ball and predict the future a bit.

Here’s why Tiana’s Bayou Adventure may have some hiccups during its first year in operation.

Recent Disney History

First, let’s talk about the pink elephant dancing in the room, and it’s a couple of recent Disney problems.

One of these issues was overblown by some, but that oppressive scrutiny underscores the pressure Disney faces.

Whenever a new attraction debuts, people have to talk about something…and I’m as guilty of this as anyone.

So, when Disney designs a ride cart that let’s just say doesn’t perfectly fit the robust American physique, people notice.

Then, they talk about the miscalculation, creating a negative news cycle that tends to propagate throughout the media.

That’s one of the ironclad laws of the internet. The negative story garners exponentially more attention than the straightforward one.

In this case, Disney designed Tron Lightcycle / Run’s ride carts based on the Shanghai Disneyland prototypes.

Alas, Americans are generally quite a bit taller and broader than our Chinese counterparts. So, some of the sites were tight fits.

That’s no harm, no foul for 95 percent of the population, but the angriest people are generally also the loudest.

When I said that, someone angry and loud probably sprang to mind, and you’re nodding knowingly.

Those people have internet access, too. And my goodness, they sure love to type a long list of grievances.

Anyway, since Disney stories garner a disproportionately large number of clicks, a vicious cycle ensues.

Sometimes, that cycle reaches comical heights, which leads us to another sticking point.

Tons of Moving Parts

I bring up Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance frequently, and there are several reasons for that.

First, it’s Disney’s most popular ride. When I discuss it, everyone understands the subject matter.

Second, Rise of the Resistance is probably Disney’s best ride in terms of technical innovation.

You can find several YouTube videos along the lines of this one:

Also, several television programs have interviewed people familiar with the ride’s under the hood mechanics.

You may not remember this now, but Rise of the Resistance didn’t open with Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at either Disneyland or Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

The attraction ran late due to the staggering complexity of its design.

Every mechanical part comes with a failure rate due to the fact that entropy occurs over time.

When anything requires lots of moving parts, its failure rate increases.

In Imagineering terms, a more complex attraction will tear up more frequently than a simpler one.

Think about the situation from the perspective of your smartphone versus your toaster.

Which one do you replace more often? Exactly.

At Rise of the Resistance, Disney has practically jammed five different ride designs together to create a super-mega- attraction.

Not coincidentally, that attraction suffers frequent malfunctions.

In terms of vulnerabilities, it has five times as many things that can go wrong.

As we’ll discuss in a moment, that same statement applies to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure as well.

For now, let’s acknowledge that the delays and downtime of Rise of the Resistance are the other reasons why it’s a history lesson.

When Disney hypes its attractions the most, fan expectations soar the highest.

When someone expects too much, they’re often disappointed, which explains some of Marvel’s recent struggles as well.

 

Then, we have the other sticking point…

The Splash Mountain Comparisons

Hey, did you love Splash Mountain? I know I did.

The attraction was pretty much perfect except for that one unfortunate thing.

Splash Mountain was tethered to a Disney film the studio has buried in the Disney Vault.

I think we all understand why Disney felt the need to modernize the attraction with a new theme.

However, the old attraction was open just last year. It remains fresh in our memories, and we reminisce fondly about it.

Splash Mountain produced some of the greatest ride photos of all-time, with even celebrities like The Rock performing silly poses.

Song of the South may divide us, but Splash Mountain was a uniter as an attraction…as long as you didn’t think about the source material.

In the past, I’ve written lists that declared Splash Mountain the funniest Disney attraction and the one with the best music.

Many other content creators have ranked it as one of Disney’s best rides ever.

When Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens, it’ll face the long shadow of its predecessor.

Should the new ride fail to dazzle early writers, a hysterical wave of social media will say, “Why, Disney, why?”

Now, I don’t think the Tiana ride will disappoint. In fact, I suspect the situation is quite the opposite.

Despite that fact, some will still declare it inferior. And I can’t cast stones here.

I spent the body of Tom Brady’s Hall of Fame career swearing he was overrated.

That take has aged worse than the contents of a dorm room fridge. But I said it.

Similarly, people will say nasty things about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure no matter what.

That’s before we consider some of the other potential sticking points I’ve mentioned.

Why Tiana’s Bayou Adventure May Have Hiccups

Have you watched the first episode of We Call It Imagineering yet? If not, I’m begging you to take 14 minutes to do so.

In this video, you can watch Disney’s most inventive and creative people build elements of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

Disney has even invited guests to Walt Disney Imagineering’s so-called Candy Store to let them watch how the magic happens.

Many of the highlights involve Audio-Animatronics (AAs) for the Tiana attraction.

We know that Tiana will appear at several points during the ride experience, which forces Imagineers to build multiple AAs of her.

Then, we have the toothy Louis, the musician whose bark is worse than his bite.

The above video lets you look in his mouth, where you’ll notice a comical number of moving parts.

If any of those fails, the Louis AA malfunctions. The same statement applies to Tiana and Mama Odie as well.

Remarkably, those are just a small portion of the number of AAs on display during the attraction.

That brings me to another concern. Splash Mountain generally worked well enough to stay operational most of the time.

Should Tiana’s Bayou Adventure experience significant downtime, critics will assail Disney for breaking the old ride for something unstable.

That’s a fair criticism, too. And there’s another issue happening behind the scenes as well.

When people visited The Candy Store, Disney officials told them some of the AAs for the Tiana attraction were only about 80-85 percent complete.

Disney is rushing to the finish line to get these AAs fully operational in time for the ride to open this summer.

What happens when anyone gets rushed? They tend to make more mistakes.

Will Tiana Have Hiccups?

If all this sounds familiar, it should. It’s exactly what happened with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, an attraction that ran late.

Once the groundbreaking ride finally opened, it suffered extensive downtime due to the challenges of all the moving parts.

Disgruntled guests vented about all the downtime at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, but they still had plenty to do on Batuu.

The same statement won’t apply to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which has already faced a hostile reception for atypical reasons.

Even if we ignore that noise – and my life advice to you is that you should – the overall conversation doesn’t change.

Disney has aspired to create something unprecedented at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

The attraction will operate dozens of state-of-the-art AAs, ones that would have been impossible as recently as five years ago.

Literally thousands of things could tear up on the attraction at any given moment.

Virtually none of them will because Disney’s that good, but you get the point.

A shocking amount can go wrong here, and Disney already appears to be a bit behind on some of the tech.

Imagineers have entered that dreaded phase known as crunch, and some mistakes could occur.

If they do, critics will latch onto these issues like grim death and proclaim the ride a failure.

I’ll have earmuffs on the whole time they’re talking about the nonsensical stuff, but the Tron coaster and Rise of the Resistance serve as a reminder.

Even Disney isn’t perfect. So, we should reset our expectations to accept that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure may have a few hiccups.

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